The Americans postponed the fourth helicopter flight to Mars and the return of astronauts from the International Space Station

“The ambitious fourth flight of the Martian helicopter has yet to take off, but the team is evaluating the data and will soon try again. We will inform you,” JPL said Thursday.

According to the famous astronaut and astronomer Michel Vaclavík of the Czech Space Office, the analysis of the data received from Ingenuity showed that due to an error there was no switch to the flight mode. The fourth flight could finally take place later on Friday.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory informed in advance on its website that during the fourth flight, Ingenuity should demonstrate the capabilities of using aerial reconnaissance.

Flight time was to be increased from 80 seconds to 117 compared to the third test, the speed was from 7.2 to 13.8 kilometers per hour, and the mileage should more than double compared to the 100 meters on Sunday.

After climbing to a height of five meters, the device was programmed to head south, flying over rocks, sand waves and small craters. During the flight, the helicopter was to use a downward-facing navigation camera to capture the surface every 1.2 meters to a distance of 133 meters.

Then she had to float and take pictures with a color camera before returning to the starting point.

NASA is very satisfied with the performance of its helicopter on Mars after its third flight. According to scientists, the machine achieved and even exceeded all the goals set for the technical demonstration.

“From millions of kilometers away, Ingenuity examined all the technical issues we had at NASA about the possibility of a self-propelled flight on the Red Planet.” Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Department of Planetary Sciences, said future reconnaissance missions to Mars may now be sure to look into Additional aerial reconnaissance.

A helicopter the size of a small drone landed on Mars on February 18, stored in the guts of a persistent robotic craft. On its maiden flight last week, it flew three meters for a while on Monday. During the second flight, three days later, it took off to five meters, stayed in place for a while, tilted slightly by five degrees and flew aside two meters.

After the third test, on Sunday, the Ingenuity team expressed hope that the helicopter would fly two more times before closing the flight window in early May. The past two years have likely been “really full of adventure”, according to Space.com, MiMi Aung, project leader.

If we look at other current space events, the ISS would still be busy. The departure and landing of the four-man crew on Saturday was postponed due to bad weather forecasts off the coast of Florida, and 11 people remain in the orbiting complex.

“There is another delay due to the weather at the landing site. NASA and SpaceX have not yet announced another date,” Milan Halosk, head of the astronautics division of the Czech Astronomical Society and a local expert, especially on the issue of manned space, confirmed to Novinke.

Originally, the American astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and their Japanese colleague Soishi Noguchi were due to return to Earth on Wednesday with the help of the Dragon Resellers crew after six months in orbit, but in the end that won’t be the case. Saturday either. The new date is due to be published soon.